5.28.2009

Frugal Friday-Grow it edition

What better way to save money than to grow your own food. Big or small efforts always provide reward. I started small after I got out on my own. Just flowers to begin with, I love fresh flowers in my house. I try to keep a vase or two of flowers in my house everyday of summer, but again I started small and built up. When I moved to the country I tried gardening and every year I have gotten a little bit better and then grew more and so on and so forth.

Here is our big garden halfway planted in this picture it really looks small but I can assure you it is not especially when I am weeding. I think it is 45X30 or so. See the stakes on the left? That is my new pea fence plus we have the old arbor in front too. We have several above ground beds, a small greenhouse and planters and all our perennial producers too.

It has gotten to the point where it is making a real dent in our grocery bill now. In the summer we eat mostly fresh local foods with seasonal fruit thrown in. I grow a TON of peas we eat them all summer and freeze them, too. Of course every year is different so one year you may have a bumper crop of green beans and no zucchini. It's a crap shoot. I just try to put away as much of the foods we grow as possible without it running/ruining my life. I try to add something new every year too. My kids each have their own gardens and are proud parents and consumers of their produce.

Just some of last years harvest.

We don't buy eggs because we raise them. We actually make money on eggs at this point by selling the extras for 4 dollars a dozen. This pays for local organic layer food and then some. I also recycle kitchen and garden waste through the hen lot and make compost...for the gardens.

This one of 'the ladies' named Cleo for her gold collar. She is a great layer and even laid eggs at 25 below. Also she is a camera hog! Once the gardens are planted and established we do let the chickens out for free ranging forage, only when we are home though now that the eagle checks us out on a daily basis.

This is blurry because I was trying to keep ahead of the camera hog but you can see the triplets, Bessie, Betty and Betsy with the young 'uns behind them.

This year we have intentionally bought turkeys to grow and harvest for filling our freezer. We also purchased ducks and a straight run of chickens so we will have plenty of poultry meat for winter. It may sound strange to talk of harvesting our flock but that is what we are doing, growing them for food. When they give their life so I can eat I know they will have had the best life possible and that can't be bad, right? They have been loved, cared for, fed, watered and watched with awe as they went from fluff to oddballs to sleek and beautiful birds.

This is what I affectionately call 'the peking gang' they hang out under a tree and chase you down and make you feed them if you go near them. They are swimming in their pool.

So grow a pansy plant or tomatoes or whatever you can because a small investment can bring so much more than the initial outlay.

I'm so jealous. I'd love a garden but because of time, space and laziness we have a few square foot containers but nothing in them.

Have you read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver? I LOVED it. It was very eye-opening for me but you seem to already be living the life so I don't know if it would be as interesting to you.